Arsenal legend reveals where Mikel Arteta went wrong with PSG gameplan

Evening Standard

·1 May 2025

Arsenal legend reveals where Mikel Arteta went wrong with PSG gameplan

Gunners need a huge second-leg performance in Paris to reach first Champions League final for 19 years

Work to do: Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal must produce a rousing second-leg comeback in Paris in the Champions League semi-finals

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Arsenal legend Ian Wright has admitted his surprise at the club’s “cautious start” that proved costly in the opening stages of their Champions League semi-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain.

The Gunners head to the Parc des Princes in a week’s time with it all to do to reach their first European final since 2006, having slumped to a deflating 1-0 home loss at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.

Though they forced two excellent saves from star PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Mikel Merino had a header ruled out for offside early in the second half, Arsenal were well below the levels they achieved in a statement 5-1 aggregate triumph over holders Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

They paid the price for a sluggish opening to the game in which they were dominated for long periods and fell behind after only four minutes when Ousmane Dembele made a surging run through the middle of the pitch and then, unmarked, dispatched Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s return pass in off the post with an accomplished first-time finish.

PSG also had plenty of chances to add to their advantage before the second-leg decider on home turf, with Arsenal ‘keeper David Raya making some key stops and substitute Goncalo Ramos striking the crossbar late on.

“When the game started, I don’t think that we put them under enough pressure,” former Gunners striker Wright said on the latest edition of his podcast, Wrighty’s House. “I don’t think we put them under anywhere near enough pressure.

“We let them play out and start building confidence, Dembele was in those pockets just letting things tick along. I was very surprised that, at home, the pressure that we were going to put on them, I thought we should have done it from the start.

“I know we were afraid of their pace, but I thought that we gave them the confidence to play out from the back, pass it into people, everybody getting touches and playing themselves into the game a bit. And then four minutes, bang.”

Wright said he believed Arsenal were “cautious” and “below par” against PSG, repeatedly questioning why Arsenal began the game in such passive fashion.

“We have to go there and we cannot be that cautious,” he said. “We cannot be that cautious, especially the way we started at home, semi-final first leg, let’s put it on them.”

Wright later added: “I think we got away with one. And that is because we didn’t start like I thought we would start. I’m very surprised at that.

“I cannot fathom that you are going to have a team like Paris Saint-Germain come to your place and your tactics are to sit off them and let them play it out from the back and ease their way across our halfway line.”